Haneef sketches : Herald-Sun racial prejudice?
Posted by Dave Bath on 2007-07-16
I’ve tried in vain to find some outrageous sketches on the web of Haneef (accused of recklessly loaning his SIM card to a cousin) that were published repeatedly by the Murdoch Herald-Sun over recent days.
Update: Found them: see this post.
The drawings look like the archetypal semitic of 1930’s German propaganda, and seem to be a caricature of a swarthy neanderthal but for the huge hooked nose. It’s almost a wonder they didn’t include horns on his head!
All I can find on the Herald-Sun website are the grainy photo of Haneef – perhaps the Melbourne Murdoch has become ashamed of it’s racist depiction and pulled the artist’s drawings? Does anyone know if the drawings were ever published electronically?
The hardcopy versions of the stories seem designed to incite racial prejudice against Haneef.
Can anyone out there find a link to the drawings in the Herald-Sun (e.g. p2, 2007-07-16) or Australian (p4 2007-07-16)?
Meanwhile, if you do have a copy of recent editions of the Melbourne Herald-Sun, it is worth comparing them to other sketches published by the ABC (article and sketch) or The Age (article and sketch).
I wonder if such drawings are prejudicial for the Haneef case in particular? They certainly help the Ruddock case that detention without charge is warranted, or that Migration powers can be used for proxy imprisonment without charge.
Notes:
- I have been unable to find anyone else picking up on the Murdoch pictures of Haneef, but others in the blogosphere are certainly picking up on the threat of thoughtcrime and the dropping of "intent" as necessary for criminality. "The Thought Police Are Listening" at LegalSoapbox or two articles by Marcellous ("Trumped-Up Terrorism Charge" and "Haneef: It Isn’t What He Did It’s Who He Knew") discuss some of the points of legal philosophy.
- "Fence Posts" at A Roll Of The Dice (by Patrick Bateman I think) makes a worrying point about the ability of the government to pick the person they wish to incarcerate, and then hunt through the books for an incarceration pretext.
- In the interests of fair play, I’ll put forward some equally responsible artists impressions:
- As an aside, it’s worth looking at a more subtle form of racism about appearance by the cosmetic’s industry in Ann El Khoury’s recent (2007-07-14) post Ethnic Cleansing by L’Oreal – Because your’e worth less
John Wallace said
I have arabic sketches for sale